Equinox
by Besarki
Summary: A changing season, a pile of leaves, a pair of parents, and their two year old son. The fall colors aren't the only thing to look forward to with the coming of Autumn. YohAnnaHana


Besarki: Just wanted to write something. And so I sat at my computer trying to think of something to write about. This is what popped up. ^-^

So, the Autumnal Equinox isn't until at least tomorrow anywhere (here it's not until the 22nd, but in some of the other hemispheres it's on the 21st or the 23rd) but I wanted to get this posted before I forgot about it, and trust me, one day is all it takes. I have the memory span of a fish.

And yes, Hana is two, but he's a young two year old, like, he only recently turned two so while he can speak a little, he can't speak well. I don't know if I portrayed him particularly well (he seems to act older and older throughout the piece x.x), but whatever. It works.

Disclaimer: Shaman King and all related elements belong to Takei Hiroyuki and Shueisha

* * *

Eighteen year old Asakura Yoh ran a gloved hand over his forehead, wiping the sweat from his brow and then drying it on his already soiled shirt. After another moment, he loosed a heavy sigh and rested his head on the tip of his rake.

Earlier that very morning, Yoh's blond-haired wife peered out the window and noticed that their yard was suddenly cloaked in various shades of red, orange, and yellow. Though she had first remarked that she had found it pretty, it came to no surprise when she immediately changed attitudes and demanded that it be cleaned up.

Needless to say, _Yoh_ was the one who had been blessed with that oh-so-_coveted_ job, and, since it was a Saturday and he didn't have school, he had no excuse to help him get out of it.

And so, alas, here he stood, with no one to keep him company but a rusted rake and a ton of leaves. Hoo-rah.

Deciding that just standing out there feeling sorry for himself wasn't getting him anywhere, Yoh righted himself and threw the sharp end of the rake out in front of him, then dragged it back, bringing a stack of fallen leaves with it.

On the flip side, at least he wouldn't have to work much longer. He'd been out here for the past four hours and was almost done.

That thought brought a smile to his face. Then, after this, he just had to do his homework and he'd, hopefully, be free for the weekend!

He paused. Ugh, homework. Yoh didn't like homework. Especially Calculus, and, go figure, that was what he had. Yuck!

Yoh paused for a quick moment.

Maybe, when this was all over and done with, he'd call Manta and invite him over. That way, he could just copy his friend's homework and not have to do any of it himself! Huh. That was a good idea. He _liked_ that idea.

Yoh's musings were interrupted by a flurry of happy gurgling sounds coming from behind him. Curiously, he turned his head toward them. The sight brought a smile to his face.

Quietly closing the door, a tired-looking Anna set out across the yard with a bubbly baby Hana perched happily in her arms.

"Hey," Yoh said gently, dropping his rake and moving to meet her half way across the yard. When he reached her, he outstretched his arms to relieve her of the child in her own since he was sure she'd come outside to hand the little guy off.

Indicating that he was right on the money with his guess, Anna willingly surrendered little Hana to Yoh, who took on a whole new form of abuse as Hana stopped pulling on his mother's hair and went to playing with his father's bulky orange headphones.

While Hana had his fun toying with his otou's favorite accessory, Yoh bleakly ran his eyes over his exhausted wife.

In the past two years, Anna's hair had grown significantly longer, now to the point where it was reaching down her arms, and her face had acquired a more adult look, though she was clearly still juvenile, like himself. She wore a longer black dress now, and had replaced her previous rosary with the triple-folded 1080. All in all, there weren't many changes, but there were enough to notice a difference.

Yoh was very much the same, in that his hair was longer and his face was older, even if only slightly on the latter, but, somehow, his changes were much more noticeable. Pino and the other Ice Men had visited a few years ago, and while they were able to recognize Anna while she stood in the front lobby, they didn't recognize Yoh standing on the other side of the room, despite the fact that they knew him a thousand times better.

Regardless of all of that, though, that wasn't what held Yoh's attention now: it was her eyes. Anna's scorching amber eyes were copied on Hana's face, but while his were bright and vibrant, hers were dull and dead-looking.

"You look like hell," Yoh told her, cringing slightly when she shot him an annoyed look, and then carefully amending, "like you haven't slept in weeks."

She sighed. "It hasn't been that long. Just a few days."

That piece of information made him frown. He did notice yesterday that she hadn't looked all that great, but didn't bring it up since she seemed to sense the question coming and successfully bound him to silence by hissing a list of chores and refusing to talk to him for the remainder of the morning.

However, she wasn't going to stop him now.

"Anna, you look like you're getting sick," He noticed. She shrugged indifferently.

"Probably am, but it doesn't matter. It's nothing serious."

Her blatant disregard for her own health bothered him. After a moment of pondering, he reached forward, placed his hand on her shoulder and made to turn her around. She looked back at him in confusion.

"I'm sure it's not, but regardless, not sleeping isn't healthy."

"I'm not doing it on purpose, _Yoh_," She angrily spat.

"I know," He replied, exuding the typical calm that always seemed to radiate off him plus a little bit of detectable worry. "But, you know what? This can all be solved with a simple nap!" He said, smiling warmly, though she didn't return the gesture. She was immune.

"I'm not taking a nap. I brought Hana out to you because I needed to organize our financial files and he'd just slobber all over the folders. I see now that I should have just dealt with it."

Yoh chuckled and urged her back in the direction of the house.

"No, Yoh, stop it, let go!" She protested, seeing that in his determination, there was no way he'd stop at the house and just let her loose. This was when all the training she'd forced him into all those years ago _didn't_ come in handy. There was no way she could physically stand up to him now...now that he wasn't just a lanky little kid anymore. To make matters worse, knowing Yoh, he'd force her all the way to their bedroom and then stand outside the door until she finally gave up and did what he wanted her to--went to sleep. She knew that there was no arguing with him when he got like this. His unbelievable compassion for others, and for her in particular, was outstanding in its magnitude.

Despite Anna's worthless and considerably weak struggle, Yoh let out a jovial, "Nope!" and continued to push her back toward the house.

Once he reached the door, Yoh stopped to open it, keeping a firm yet gentle arm around his wife's shoulders to ensure that she didn't take off. It wasn't like she had the energy to, but he wasn't taking chances.

From here, he took her hand and literally dragged her through the house and up to their room, Hana laughing and Anna complaining all the while.

"Now," Yoh started as he pushed his furious wife into their bedroom, which was probably the last _and_ first place she wanted to be at the same time, "you look horrible, so you're going to take a nap while I watch Hana! See? It's a win-win situation for you! You get out of your baby-watching duty _and_ you get to relax for once! Isn't that great?"

"...There aren't words for how much I want to kill you right now."

Yoh burst out into laughing fits with Hana joining in here and there.

"Just go to sleep, Anna," He said through his laughter. "Take it easy. There's no need to kill yourself over this. I can handle this guy_ and_ the the financial statements, not that you can't," He quickly covered, "but... Anyway, I'll get to that after I finish outside. Okay? In the meantime, just chill out, and I'll come wake you up for dinner."

Anna glared at him, but, for whatever reason, backed away and slammed the door in his face.

A big smile crossed the shaman's face as he heard his son laughing and clapping his hands in his arms.

"Isn't she silly, Hana?" Yoh whispered to the giggling boy, who flashed him a big, open-mouthed grin.

Yoh smiled back at his son, then went about readjusting him in his arms. When they both seemed comfortable, Yoh took one last look at the closed door and then headed down the stairs and out into the yard. Here, he placed Hana down safely in the grass and grinned as the infant stared at the many leaf piles in extreme stupor.

Hana stared for a moment, and then pushed himself to his feet and made his way around the yard, stopping at the various piles of leaves, and eventually jumping in one.

Yoh cringed, knowing that he'd have to spend all that time cleaning it back up.

Hana paid no mind to his father's pained expression and went on flopping around in the splash of autumn colors.

Yoh shook his head and went back to the where he had left his rake in the center of the lawn. He bent over and retrieved it before going back to raking up the loose leaves that had previously escaped his grasp.

"You know Hana," He started after about ten minutes, "I hadn't thought of it before, but there are actually a lot of advantages to being a baby."

Hana paused in his leaf-mauling to spare a questioning glance up at his father.

"Yeah," Yoh told him, grinning as the list scrolled through his head. "There's a ton. For starters...huff...you don't have to do any chores. Yeah...huff...Anna's great--a real sweetheart once you get to know her--but...when it comes to work...she's crazy!"

"Cazy," Hana attempted to repeat, his baby voice making his father laugh. "Kaa-cha' cazy."

Yoh smiled despite himself. "That's right. Kaa-chan's crazy. Oh, but don't tell her that. It would hurt her feelings."

"No tell Kaa-cha'," Hana repeated. A second later, he grinned and picked up a leaf to show his father.

Yoh smiled. "That's very nice, Hana," He complimented.

Hana spun the leaf around in his hand to examine it. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary--just a simple red, maple leaf. However, to Hana's still-young eyes, it was gorgeous. A masterpiece of the sorts!

Yoh stood the rake upright and rested his chin on the rounded end of it, observing his son as his son observed everything around him.

This obviously wasn't Hana's first fall. However, it was the first fall he could _walk_ during. Walk, talk, and perform, well, he wouldn't call them _in-depth_, but at least competent observations during.

Hana twisted the leaf and then poked a hole in the middle and held it up to his eye. He laughed as he peered up at his father through his makeshift mask.

Yoh shook his head. The kid was cute, he'd give him that.

After another moment, Hana reached around and picked up three more auburn canvases.

"Yeaf," Hana announced, holding one of his new leaves above his head.

Yoh cracked a grin. "Are you going to just sit there playing in the leaves all day?"

Hana peered at him inquisitively, almost as if he was asking, _well, what else is there to do?_

The elder's grin expanded, and, regardless of the fact that he had only just resumed raking the leaves, found himself dropping it once more and striding over to sit down beside his young son.

Hana giggled and _lovingly_ smacked his father's arm. When Yoh cringed a bit, Hana burst out into laughing fits. He was definitely his mother's son.

While Hana was preoccupied giggling over Yoh's feigned pain, Yoh quickly snatched one of Hana's scarlet leaves off the ground from where they laid in a small pile in front of him.

Hana's laughter subsided and his smile melted into an annoyed frown as he noticed the blatant thievery. _Why you steal dat, Tou-chan?_ was undoubtedly the question running through his infantile little mind.

Yoh offered him a reassuring smile, and simply said, "Watch."

With no apparent hurry, Yoh laid his palm out flat in the air in front of him, the red leaf lying "pretty side"-up over it.

A moment later, the little leaf rose up from the surface and hovered above it, remaining there as if it were held up by invisible strings of thread, or maybe magic.

Hana's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. He reached out to touch the elusive object, but his stubby little fingers just couldn't reach. His eyes watered as if he were about to cry as he tried ever harder.

In an instant, Yoh flipped his hand over and a transparent bubble popped into existence around the levitating leaf. Hana's eyes grew with disbelief and shock.

The sphere landed softly on Yoh's overturned hand and then slowly unfolded it's arms, legs, and ears in motions that made it look like it was stretching. As if to add to the effect, the little ball yawned from its non-existent mouth and finally opened its eyes.

Hana's determination increased ten-fold and he flung both arms out in a desperate, frenzied reach for the newly formed creature.

Yoh smiled and held out a single finger as a gesture to wait in the face of his young son. Carefully, he reached forward and took Hana's little hand, flipping it over so his palm faced the sky.

Both the pupils of the little leaf sprite and Hana's questioning baby eyes connected with Yoh's own. The shaman smiled at the nature spirit and held his hand-turned-roost closer to his son's open palm.

The sprite spared him one last glance before it pushed itself up and bounced over into Hana's grasp.

The infant's face lit up as he held the sprite closer to him.

"It's called a _leaf sprite_," Yoh told him with a gentle smile.

"Yeaf spite," Hana echoed, his eyes turning from Yoh to the spiritually animated leaf in his hand. "Yeaf spite!" He said once more.

Yoh grinned and waved his hand across the space in front of him. Instantly, hundreds of leaf sprites popped up from the ground and crowded around them.

Hana stared in absolute awe while Yoh was left to momentarily wonder why he hadn't just done this earlier. It would have saved him _at least_ four hours of work...

The sprite in Hana's hand levitated upwards to change its roost to the center of the little boy's wild head of hair.

Around them, the sprites performed, their tiny little forms flipping and twirling in the air. They swirled and twisted around them in elaborate dance maneuvers, all the while little Hana looked on with unspeakable fascination.

When the dance finally concluded five minutes later, an exhausted Yoh directed the sprites into a single file line and then sent them zipping across the lawn and depositing their mediums into a large pile of all the yard's leaves.

It was another thirty seconds before his tiny son reacted.

Overjoyed, Hana's hands beat together in a rapid clapping motion and he stared meaningfully at Yoh until he did a less enthusiastic version of the very same thing.

Hana laughed and clapped for several minutes before his mind spurred him into action.

With a huge grin on his face, the child pushed himself to his feet and hobbled over to the huge pile of leaves. He eagerly jumped into them and began making a huge mess out of it, flinging leaves in all directions. His grin still in place, he whirled around to face his exasperated father.

"Again!" Hana demanded, while his father stared at him in disbelieving horror.

Needless to say, it wasn't Anna desperately in need of sleep that evening.

* * *

Besarki: One of these days, I _will_ write something _without_ Hana in it. XD But not now. That kid is just too darn cute to pass up.

Ah, can you tell the parts of the story where I got bored with writing and where I found inspiration again? I think it's pretty obvious, but well, I know personally so, well...never mind.

Okay, so, I don't know what's up with the whole oneshot thing right now, but I'm on a kick. Maybe I'll write a HanaxAnna III next, hmm? Or a tragedy! Yeah! I just got a really good song to listen to while I'm writing it. Or maybe I'll start up a drabble series! I have one Chocolove drabble written up in my head. Oh, I don't know what to do! AHHHHH! Bah. We'll see.

Ah, well. Nothing more to say, I suppose. Review, Munchies!


End file.
